THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Holland Cotter
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| The artist Oliver Croy and the critic Oliver Elser preserved “The 387 Houses of Peter Fritz (1916-1992) Insurance Clerk from Vienna, 1993-2008.” Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times |
NEW YORK---You call it collecting. I call it hoarding. The New Museum calls it art and has a captivating exhibition devoted to it. Titled “
The Keeper,” the show fills three floors and a lobby gallery with hundreds of thousands of mostly small objects and images gathered, sorted, arranged and recorded by some 30 retentive artists — keepers — over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. People surround themselves with things to compensate for perceived deprivation past, and as a hedge against fear of future want. They encase themselves in environments that will magnify their view of themselves in the world or protectively narrow it, and, either way, keep thoughts of dissolution at bay. [
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The New Museum: "The Keeper” (Ends September 25, 2016); 235 Bowery, Manhattan; (212) 219-1222; newmuseum.org
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| Detail from Henrik Olesen’s “Some Gay-Lesbian Artists and/or Artists relevant to Homo-Social Culture Born between c. 1300-1870.” Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
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